[Springboard] Preparation for next Springboard

[JOHN L. EPPS]

Thanks, Joe.

As always your insights are timely and welcome. We are indeed in a new
time with new existential questions being raised. One version of
characterizing it:
 external event: collapse of supporting structures  (economic, political,
and cultural)
  internal crisis: Security when all the supports are gone
   Existential question: What can I trust?
   Escape: belligerance (from wars to suicide bombings to school
shootings, to fanatics of all stripes).

Your comments and corrections are more than welcome!

John Epps

Quoting "Joseph A. Slicker" <joseph.slicker at gmail.com>:

> Dear Colleagues:
>     We have a wonderful heritage.  Without the 20th Contrary
> theologians like Bultmann, Tillich, the two Niebuhrs, and Bonhoeffer
> with their context along with Joe Mathews and others we would not in
> all probably be spiritually alive today.  We should celebrate their
> gifts and keep them stored in our memories for periodic checking if and
> when needed.
>     However, that is not the edge today and constant hovering over them
> keep us from expending our energy on today's edge.  The 20th Century is
> gone.  Its enclosure is 'old wine skins'.  Our zooming technology,
> zeitgeist of modernism-post modernism, and increasing awareness of a
> 'one-like Gaia', in all of which we and our society swim---however you
> want to describe it--- is here and now. It is also here to celebrate
> and self-consciously live in.
>     We have to get ourselves into the 21st Century to devise our
> theology, our kerygma, practical applications and solitudes.  It is in
> this context that I humbly and respectfully urge us to continue to
> prepare for this by taking two very necessary baby steps.
>
>     1.  Each of us begin immediately, and get our house church, guild,
> sanga, or whoever else you run with, to participate in the Monday night
> Oprah website presentation of "A New Earth Online Class"  It is a study
> of Eckhart Tolle's book, "A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's
> Purpose."  It is a real gem.
>     Tolle's book presents nothing but highest spiritual value, and the
> dialogue of the program is all about authentic being.  I found it
> overcame the 'Greek' in me that thought it was to mundane or
> 'foolishness' for me to participate, or the 'Jew' in me which found it
> a 'stumbling block' to my culture, or sloppy thinking, theologizing or
> wanting to reduce it to an intellectual argument.  Incidentally, Tolle
> claims no specific heritage, but certainly is privy to the great
> tradition of both the East and West.
>     Oprah is no slouch herself.  She should be acknowledged for taking
> a stand for authenticity of being in herself, but should also be
> acknowledged for taking the same stand for her audience.  She guides
> the dialogue of the program as MC.  Sometimes she answers with her own
> history and wisdom which always seems to be on target, or clarifies the
> conversation as Tolle answers the incoming questions.
>     I had read the book in 2005 when it first came out.  I was so
> struck with it that I sent each member of my family a copy.  In
> addition, my sister and I had extended conversations on sections of it.
>  So I was originally reluctant to participate in the program--hadn't I
> read it already.  How wrong I was.  I follow the dialogue as it goes
> on, and get caught up in it.  I see myself in each person even though
> my external situation is different.  My interior awareness is in the
> dialogue and requires me to respond to the choice that is in question.
>     The program is on www.oprah.com on Monday nights at 8 PM central
> time.  There are several questions each week to help our study for the
> follow week.  It also has exercises for each session.  If you miss a
> program they are available in video, audio, and transcript, or can be
> downloaded to your ipod for ongoing use.  There were more than 11
> million participants at the end of session three.  It grows in number
> each session.
>     Join the online show for its next program, April 7, 2008, beginning
> the last five chapters of the book.  If you aren't able to get your
> group together now, then start the process of their deciding to act and
> get whatever past lessons necessary for their ability to continue the
> dialogue.  Then setup how this or something like this can be utilized
> or recreated in the future.
>
>     2. The Tolle dialogue is an outstanding, but just one of many types
> of examples of the consciousness revolution that is going on today.
> Don't underestimate this revolution.  It hasn't happened in this
> magnitude in written history before.  It includes both the spiritual
> and material, intellectual and practical life.  We all can see the
> externals such as awareness of global interaction, technology expansion
> that include the internet and cell phones. Small groups can spring up
> and talk to each other everywhere.  New possibilities have expanded
> beyond imagination.  On the other hand, the world seems in many
> respects to have gone crazy.  Hate, and hate and denial groups, expand
> and destroy peoples' bodies, their hopes and dreams.
>     What is going on that allows people to become aware of
> transcendence beyond our immediate hopes and dreams?  Enter the
> Consciousness Revolution.  I think it is imperative that those who are
> aware of this transcendence read the recent book, "2012".  My initial
> reaction was, Naw!  I don't want to get caught up in such mythologies
> that some groups use as a vehicle for their use of distorted
> eschatology to fuel their hatred.  Again, I was so wrong.  The book
> 2012 describes the signs of the consciousness revolution today.  It
> explains how many great traditions held both the spiritual and material
> together as they expand toward gathering fullness.  The greatness is
> that they see how nature---the earth---the galaxy---are part of the
> spiritual/material in the revolution's movement to an apex.
>     The book is made up of series of essays of around 25 different
> people and many traditions. Thumb through and get a picture of the
> whole.  Read the first few chapters and then jump to the last one, and
> then go through and read as your interest guides your selection.  You
> won't be disappointed.  And remember this is just a tip of the iceberg
> of this revolution.  Every discipline is breaking loose in some
> dimension.  It's seeing that whatever you touch is like a fountain
> bursting loose in its flow.  Enjoy it all.
>
>
> Joe Slicker
>
> April 2008



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